Blank Generation

"Punk rock should be appalling, disgraceful, totally berserk..." Captain Sensible

Punk rock was born in a fire, in a blood and feces stained bathroom stall, in a riot, at an orgy, at a high school prom, at a knife fight, in a little girl's bedroom, at a suicide. A mutant birth brought into being when Garage Rock raped Rockabilly and left her crying and ashamed and bruised and so angry she will kill. Punk rock was the kid in the back of the classroom no-one ever talked to. Punk rock was the kid too poor to take the bus. Punk rock was the kid with broken glass in his knuckles and spit in his eye.

Punk rock is ugly and mean and dumb. It is threatening and misery and death. It is basic primal energy. It is harder, faster, louder than anything that came before it or after it.

Punk rock is a high school dropout, an art school graduate, an MBA, an acne-scarred kid, and a grey haired hipster.

Punk rock is Old School, Hardcore, New Wave, Post-Punk, Oi!, Anarcho-Punk, Pop Punk, Alternative Rock, Emo, Scremo, Queercore, and Riot Grrrl.

Punk rock is shopping at the Salvation Army Thrift Store, at Hot Topic, at West 49. Punk rock is shoplifting food and investing in mutual funds and RRSP's.

I first heard Punk rock in my parents' living room in fall of '76. It was on the CBC, a news report about an ugly, ugly, ugly trend in London. Safety pins and torn clothing and hair standing at right-angles. Violent and smeared in dripping black eyeliner, the crowd at the bar in the news piece threw themselves up and down, up and down. The disembodied voice of the reporter spoke of riots and gang attacks and anarchy. The band was frightening, amateurish, clowns with a six-string guitar and drums, the lead singer droned "No future, no future..." I was ten and this was my Saul on his way to Damascus moment. I was blinded, yet I could see clearly.

"Here's a shocker: Hilly Kristal turns out to have been a millionaire. Just weeks after the legendary former CBGB owner passed away, his heirs - who thought Kristal was broke - are finding out that the old punk impresario was worth a surprising $3.7 million." The Village Voice, September 18, 2007

"What in the name of all that is holy was that?" Me, 1993 after seeing a Subaru Impreza commercial that claimed the car was like Punk rock

Punk has always been about the underground and the underdog. Anti-commerical, anti-mainstream, anti-establishment, anti-authority, anti-anti. Punk has also always been about selling out to the highest bidder, commercial success, mainstream acceptance, radio playlists, and chart positions. The mainstream acceptance of Punk was not forced down a mohawk tattooed throat. The Sex Pistols did not have to give their pictures for Dutch bubble-gum cards. Nirvana did not have pose for the cover of Rolling Stone. The Clash did not have to sell their songs to car companies. Green Day did not have to give their videos to MTV for airplay. Punk rock looks better than ever. It scored the prom queen and an investment portfolio.

"Punk is musical freedom. It's saying, doing, and playing what you want." Kurt Cobain

Punk rock loves to define itself. Punk rock is loud, violent and three minutes long. Punk rock is Hardcore. Punk rock is shouting over a jackhammer. Punk rock is Never Mind The Bollocks. Punk rock is the first Clash record. Its Mommy's Little Monster. Its Black Flag before Hank. Its Black Flag with Hank. Punk rock is what American Hardcore, Punk's Not Dead, Punk: Attitude or any of another dozen documentaries that try to define Punk rock say it is. Punk rock is not. It is not about boundaries or fences or secret handshakes or cult meetings. Or what I just found on Dictionary.com: A type of rock-'n'-roll, reaching its peak in the late 1970s and characterized by loud, insistent music and abusive or violent protest lyrics, and whose performers and followers are distinguished by extremes of dress and socially defiant behavior. It is not. It is also Mike Ness' and Eddie Spaghetti's country records. It is also Devo, The Talking Heads, Blondie, and The Boomtown Rats. It is what Cobain said. Musical freedom. As someone much wiser than me said, if your heart is in the right place, the surface material doesn't really matter.

Punk rock is dying and is alive and well and is no-code and is having heart palpitations and just got some hair plugs and is cute and is ripped and is pretty damn hot. Punk rock is eating its young to stay alive, is cannibalizing its neighbors, is denying and is shouting proudly from the rooftops.

Punk rock is complicated.

Art Ramblings

Mark Jenkins is an American artist.

Go to his website. It is here. He also has a Tape Sculpture Tutorial site. Click here. You should also check out the street art blog The Wooster Collective.



Mark Jenkins works mostly in packing tape.



His stuff and things have popped up in cities all over the world, from D.C. to Rio. It has also appeared in nature.



The nature setting seems to be a statement against the idiots who leave garbage on hiking trails. One time, I was on the side of a mountain in Alberta, keeping an eye out for grizzlies, miles from civilization, above the tree-line, when I stepped on a Coke can. Another time, I found an abandoned Yukon Jack t-shirt. I like Mr. Jenkins' art.



I like that it's playful. And fun. And a little disturbing at times. It works to knock people out of their zombie stupor.



Read an interview with Mr. Jenkins in the Washington Post





This is from YouTube. Mark Jenkins has posted several videos of people reacting to his installations. This is from New York City.



This is from Rio. It is called All You Can Eat.



There are more. Lots more. Go to YouTube and search. They are worth the hunt.

Some of my favorite art is street art. Its like guerilla war against boredom.

Strange Rumblings

Fidel has retired. And Raul is the new boss.



"Beans are more important than cannon." Raul said that. "After the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's economic benefactor, it was Raul who persuaded Fidel to permit private agricultural markets and open the island to foreign investment in sectors like tourism, now a $2 billion-a-year industry in Cuba." Tim Padgett of Time said that. And Oswaldo Paya, Cuba's leading dissident, has come to view the U.S. embargo as unhelpful.

Strange rumblings, indeed.



This is a picture of Fidel and Che playing some golf. I like it. Put that on a t-shirt, bitches. Fuck t-shirt socialism.

Sorry - listening to N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton. When I first heard N.W.A., I felt fear for my pimply white ass. The revolution had arrived and it was being broadcast on MuchMusic. Easy E and Ice Cube and Dr. Dre were coming to my home to whack me and my white-guilt. Oh, fuckshit, the threat could not be exaggerated. Chuck D and Public Enemy were Malcolm X and N.W.A. were the Panthers, very scary, very organized. They made Bobby Seale look like a pacifist. Shitdamn. And then Easy E died of AIDS. And Dr. Dre, well Dre's living a nice suburban life. He has wife and kids. And now Ice Cube stars in movies for Disney.



Fuck The Police, indeed.

Oh, my man, the world is odd and strange and confusing and bewildering and hurts the eye at times.

How, how, how, how are we to make sense of a world where in one decade a man is straight outta Compton, a crazy mutherfucker named Ice Cube... And in another decade poses with L.A.'s finest at a meet and greet at Tower Records?

Cube posing with L.A. cops. Fidel and Che playing a round of golf.



The contrast between what we assume we know, Fidel the peasant hero, against what we don't know, Fidel the son a wealthy landowner and the family maid. Fidel the proletariat, Fidel the bourgeois golf player. Che the bourgeois golf player, Che the martyr for Latin America freedom.



The contrast between what we assume we know and what we don't know. That's the stuff to ponder, to dwell on, to dig into. "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Mark Twain said that. It's the stuff you don't see coming, like a dark Cadillac with the lights off in a deep moonless night careening towards you as you step off the curb on your way to the all night store to buy some cigarettes and some porn. It's the suicide of Hunter S. Thompson. Nixon going to China. Brian Mulroney leading the international pressure to end apartheid. Its when what you are sure you know comes into a violent conflict with what you don't know.

What we are sure we know: George W. Bush, the President of the United States, is rotten to the core. His failures, his arrogance, his bullying and his bullying and inability to master the English language. "Bush is a natural-born loser with a filthy-rich daddy who pimped his son out to rich oil-mongers. He hates music, football and sex, in no particular order, and he is no fun at all." Hunter S. Thompson said that. "Bush has rocked America's core idea of itself and most of the world's idea of America. He may not be forgiven, and he certainly won't be forgotten for this." Bob Geldof said this. What we are sure we know is Iraq, Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, waterboarding.



At one point I suggest that he will never be given credit for good policies, like those here in Africa, because many people view him "as a walking crime against humanity." He looks very hurt by that. And I'm sorry I said it, because he's a very likable fellow. Bob Geldof wrote that.

And this what we don't know.

One woman tells how six months previously, she was bitten by a cobra and rushed to hospital. As she was passing out, she tells the President, "that little voice whispered to me, 'You'll be all right,' and I was." She pauses, and says meaningfully to him: "You know that little voice, I think?" "Not really," Bush says drily. "I've never been bitten by a cobra."

And this what we don't know.

"U.S. solutions should not be imposed on African leaders." George W. Bush said that.

"When we see hunger we feed them. Not to spread our influence, but because they're hungry." George W. Bush said that.

"Stop coming to Africa feeling guilty. Come with love and feeling confident for its future." George W. Bush said that.

George W. Bush initiated the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with cross-party support led by John Kerry and Bill Frist. $15 billion over 5 years, it is the largest investment to fight a single disease in history. Bush wants to extend it for 5 more years, spending $30 billion.

In 2003, only 50,000 Africans were on HIV antiretroviral drugs and they had to pay for their own medicine. Today, 1.3 million are receiving medicines free. The Americans contribute one-third of the money to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which treats another 1.5 million. 50% of all food aid. A $350 million fund for other neglected tropical diseases that can be easily eradicated. A program to distribute 5.2 million mosquito nets to kids in Tanzania. Contracts worth @ $1.2 billion in Tanzania and Ghana from the Millennium Challenge Account. With other leading industrialized nations has granted $34 billion in debt relief for African nations in the past 18 months.

"Human suffering should preempt commercial interest." George W. Bush said that.

This what we don't know.

Bush, the "natural-born loser with a filthy-rich daddy", the incompetent, the arrogant. Bush, Cheney's puppet, the yes-man for oil, the guy with the bin Laden family connections. Bush, Michael Moore's fave-o-rite punching bag. Bush, evil incarnate. Bush is also the best friend Africa has ever had in the White House. He has done for more for Africa than any other president ever. Period.

"This is the triumph of American policy really. It was probably unexpected of the man. It was expected of the nation, but not of the man, but both rose to the occasion." Bob Geldof said that.



Read Bob Geldof's article in Time. I recommend it. Its a shot to the gut.

Strange rumblings, indeed.

John Simon Ritchie

I Can Kick:The Crispin Hellion Glover Sampler

As a wiser man than I once said, every film geek has his or her own favourite Crispin Glover movie moment.

Mine is the standing up to Biff scene in Back To The Future or the running around his car screaming scene in Rivers Edge. Or the Larry Flynt brings Jesus to Hustler scene in People vs Larry Flynt.

(Anyway... If anyone still drops by this lonely space on the internet-tubes, tell me - what is your fave-o-rite Crispin Glover movie scene...)

Crispin Hellion Glover was born in 1964. His father is an actor. His father's name is Bruce Glover. This is Bruce Glover as Mr. Wint in Diamonds Are Forever...


Crispin Hellion Glover is an actor.

Crispin Glover appeared in a made for tv movie titled High School USA in 1983.


Crispin Glover appeared in Happy Days also in 1983.


In 1984 Crispin Glover appeared in Friday The 13th:The Last Chapter.


On July 28, 1987 Crispin Glover appeared on David Letterman.




Crispin Glover is a singer.

This is Mr. Glover doing his version of Michael Jackson's Ben, from the film Willard.


And this, this is special. This is the video for Crispin Glover's Clowny Clown Clown.


Crispin Glover is a multi-media army on one.

Recently Crispin Glover filled in for Timothy Olyphant on Sports Update on Indie 103.1.


He has a website. You can find information about his films 'What Is It?' and 'It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine.' and his Big Slideshow and his books and his Compact Discs and how to book him for your special event. Go to his website here.



Crispin Glover is a force of nature.

Holly Hunter Is A Brave, Brave, Brave Woman Continued

Previously on Flinging Pooh... I posted The Interview Seen Around The World. See below.

ABC News has now entered into the fray and has posted a story on abcnews.com about The Interview Seen Around The World. ABC tries hard (real hard, brother) "to delve deeper into exactly what happened during that "What's the Buzz" interview that went so famously off-track." You see, the whole thing was a hoot, a lark, a chuckle and a buckle. A couple of technical glitches, a novice and a fumble. Not that big of a deal, says ABC. Not that big of a deal at all.

Merry Miller (really, is that her freakin name - Merry?) is brand spanking new to the on-camera side of broadcasting. She's a businesswoman and booker for the late, great Joel Siegel. She taught at the Learning Annex in New York. She is a well-rounded, intelligent woman, I'm sure. Sure she comes off as amateurish, a bit squirrley, clumsy, stupid, unblinkingly retarded, inexperienced, sad, lost in the headlights, oblivious, dumber than a Jack Russell, incompetent, bungling, bumbling, floundering, maladroit, and balmy in the interview with Holly Hunter. But there is a very, very, very, very good reason for that.

In interviews like this one, the interviewer and interviewee are not in the same room and cannot see each other. They rely on ear pieces called IFBs to hear each other and to carry on a conversation. And, according to abcnews.com...

"Unfortunately for Miller and unknown to the crew, her IFB failed before she began speaking with Hunter. Another host might have known to alert the crew about the problem and delay the interview while the technical issues were worked out, but the inexperienced Miller gamely tried to speak with Hunter without hearing her responses."

I'm shocked and bewildered. The interviewer, Merry, could not hear the interviewee, Holly. Merry was working without a safety net and had been pushed off the tightrope by a simple technical glitch. Wow.

' "I couldn't hear her, and it's very hard to talk to somebody like that," Miller said. "I give credit to Holly Hunter. She was a pro, a class act. She saved the interview." '

Sweet baby Jesus, thank you. Everything is explained. Jeez Louise, I feel bad for chuckling and laughing and guffawing and carrying on like a chimp on E everytime I watched the video. I want to take this moment and apologize, from the bottom of my toes, to Merry Miller for ever thinking bad of her. For example, for ever thinking she is one chromosone short of being a gecko. Or a brain cell shy of being that guy in Japan who tried to cover up a nuclear spill with a bucket. I'm sorry Merry, I really, honestly am.

Truly and verily, I am merry that Merry got though this with some dignity intact. Rotten technology, making the poor woman seem sad and desparate while interviewing the woman from The Piano and Raising Arizona and Oh, Brother Where Art Thou? and The Firm and Crash.

Just a moment while I clear my throat...

Watch the clip again. At approximately 30 seconds into the clip there is this exchange...

Merry Miller: Okay, we love the show. Tell us what drew you to this character that you play Grace.
Holly Hunter: I'm sorry?
Merry Miller: What drew you to this character that you play Grace?

So. Lets quickly summarize. The interviewer could not see the interviewee. The interviewer could not hear the interviewee. But somehow, someway, Merry Miller knew that Holly Hunter could not hear her. There is one and only one explanation... Merry Miller is in league with the devil and is a witch. Only a witch could answer a question she could not hear. Everything explained. Everything tidy and clean.

For the entire article at abcnews.com go here. Enjoy.

Last words from Merry that prove she is some kind of freakin business genius...

"The power of the Internet is so [great]," she said. "I'm involved in some online ventures, and my gut had told me that [the Internet] was the future of the world [and this proves] that viral marketing has really kicked in. I'm going to take this phenomenon that I created and drive it somewhere."

Holly Hunter Is A Brave, Brave, Brave Woman

I know, I know - its been a freakin long time. Now, shut up and watch...
Please, watch all the way to the end.